In the automotive field, fuel injection equipment (FIE) needs to be quantitatively tested in terms of timing of injection events and injection volume; sometimes called dosing. For diesel engines, the requirements of temporal resolution and dosing accuracy are increased because of multiple injections per cycle are used to increase fuel efficiency and to reduce emissions, especially soot and NOx.
Known FIE testing equipment is limited to injection volumes that range only over an order of magnitude; e.g. about 10 mm3 to about 100 mm3. Moreover, known FIE testing equipment lacks the resolution to distinguish between injection events that occur in diesel engines. Lastly, known FIE testing equipment is costly meaning that it may not be available to small companies, creating a barrier to entering the market of providing testing services.
The present invention overcomes one or more of these drawbacks.